Well, we knew it was coming and now it is official, the Nikon D4s is now the upgrade (albeit very minor) to the Nikon D4. There are some minor body tweaks such as a redesigned grip and more firm feeling buttons for starters and a larger battery leading to a heavier body. While plenty of other aspects on the spec sheet are different, it all boils down to 1 major change, the Processer. Sporting a 30% faster EXPEED 4, the faster processer allows plenty of changes such as faster shooting, multiple AF point tracking, 1080p video at 60fps and much more. Low light performance has also been upped with a Max ISO of 25,600 and a Hi mode of 409,600 ISO! Don't expect much of a change in your RAW images with noise reduction turned off though as this increase is because the faster processor allows better in camera noise reduction for JPEG images. 

On the video front you can now adjust your audio on the fly while recording, record 1080p video at 60fps, and view your movie files on screen even while recording to an external recorder via the HDMI output. These features definitely improve the usability of the D4s as a video camera. Video AF has been slightly improved as well, again, mostly stemming from the faster processor. 

While the Card slots remain the same controversial CF & XQD, you can now record to those cards with different RAW resolutions (A feature available on Canon cameras for some time now). While I don't see the need for this with the already small 16MP files of the D4s, it would be nice to see this features on the Nikon D800.

The camera is available for preorder right now for $6,496.95 with availability around March 6:

B&H     |      Adorama

Product Highlights

16.2MP FX-Format CMOS Sensor
EXPEED 4 Image Processor
3.2" LCD Monitor
Full HD 1080p Video Recording at 60 fps
Multi-CAM 3500FX 51-Point AF Sensor
Native ISO 25600, Extended to ISO 409600
11 fps Shooting for 200 Shots with AE/AF
91k-Pixel RGB Sensor and Group Area AF
14-Bit RAW Files and 12-Bit RAW S Format
1000 Base-T Gigabit Wired LAN Support